Sunday, January 6

The British and their bizarre view of Americans

I was reading an article by Will Self on the BBC, and found a quote which I thought made a good point.

They say "aluminum", we say "aluminium", but both can be shiny and reflective surfaces. So, no matter how intently we examine the US, we cannot help but see our own features staring back at us. This phenomenon simply doesn't occur when we look at the French, the Vietnamese or the South Africans - all remain properly other.
Only America and the Americans have this ability to derange us with their capacity to reflect our own image. Not that they do this intentionally, really, it's something we do to ourselves.
It is an interesting look at the phenomenon and perhaps to use a scientific analogy to contrast Will Self's, I could say we feel a large gravity toward American culture as we are so similar and close (inversely proportionate to r^2). So we try all the harder to avoid being absorbed by the perceived large homogeneous blob that is American culture. I don't know how right we are to think so, I think we'd probably fit in just nicely as the 51st state...

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